What Does Acts 13:29 Mean in the King James?
And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The written account reaches its goal in the body being taken from the wood and placed in a memorial tomb.
THE MEANING
The verse keeps fulfillment bodily: what is written concerning him reaches completion through his removal from the tree and burial. It holds the reader’s attention on both movements, the body is taken down, then placed in a tomb.
THE ROOT
ἐτέλεσαν
etelesan
GROWS FROM
τελ-
tel-
To reach an end or goal; to bring something to completion.
“fulfilled” in this verse is etelesan. ἐτέλεσαν (etelesan, “they completed”) comes from τελέω (teleō, “bring to completion”), from τελ- (tel-, “end or goal”). What is written concerning him reaches its goal in the physical actions that follow, rather than remaining a prediction detached from the body.
ALSO GROWS
telos: End, goal, outcome.
τέλος
It shares the tel- stem and shows that completion can mean arrival at a goal.
teleios: Complete, mature, full-grown.
τέλειος
The same word family can describe fullness or maturity, giving “fulfilled” the sense of reaching completion.
ξύλου
xylou
GROWS FROM
ξυλ-
xyl-
Wood or timber; also a tree as the source of wood.
The KJV’s “tree” can sound purely botanical, while ξύλον (xylon, “wood or tree”) names the wood itself and can also name stocks. The same word holds the execution wood and a wooden restraint within one material image as the body is taken down.
ALSO GROWS
xylon: Wood, tree; also a wooden stock or restraint.
ξύλον
The same noun names the stocks in Acts 16:24, joining the tree and the instrument of confinement through their shared material.
xylinos: Wooden, made of wood.
ξύλινος
This related adjective preserves the material sense beneath “tree”: the word points to wood itself.
μνημεῖον
mnēmeion
GROWS FROM
μνημ-
mnēm-
Memory or remembrance.
“sepulchre” in this verse is mnēmeion. μνημεῖον (mnēmeion, “tomb or memorial”) belongs to a word family of remembering. The verse ends with the body placed in a tomb whose name also carries the sense of remembrance.
ALSO GROWS
mnēmē: Memory, remembrance.
μνήμη
It makes the remembrance within the tomb’s name explicit.
mnēmosynon: Memorial, reminder.
μνημόσυνον
This branch shows how the same family names something that keeps a person or event in memory.
THE PATTERN
The written account carries death through the body’s actual passage from exposure on wood to burial.
His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:THE THREAD
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:Galatians uses the same Greek word ξύλον (xylon, “wood or tree”) for what Acts says he is taken down from. Galatians names the curse attached to hanging on the tree; Acts keeps the next bodily movement in view, removal and burial.
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